JACK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Jack mean? 

• JACK (noun)
  The noun JACK has 12 senses:

1. a small worthless amount

2. a man who serves as a sailor

3. someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor

4. immense East Indian fruit resembling breadfruit; it contains an edible pulp and nutritious seeds that are commonly roasted

5. a small ball at which players aim in lawn bowling

6. an electrical device consisting of a connector socket designed for the insertion of a plug

7. game equipment consisting of one of several small six-pointed metal pieces that are picked up while bouncing a ball in the game of jacks

8. small flag indicating a ship's nationality

9. one of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a young prince

10. tool for exerting pressure or lifting

11. any of several fast-swimming predacious fishes of tropical to warm temperate seas

12. male donkey

  Familiarity information: JACK used as a noun is familiar.

• JACK (verb)
  The verb JACK has 2 senses:

1. lift with a special device

2. hunt with a jacklight

  Familiarity information: JACK used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• JACK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small worthless amount

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

diddley; diddly; diddly-shit; diddly-squat; diddlyshit; diddlysquat; doodly-squat; jack; shit; squat

Context example:

you don't know jack

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A man who serves as a sailor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

gob; Jack; Jack-tar; mariner; old salt; sea dog; seafarer; seaman; tar

Hypernyms ("Jack" is a kind of...):

crewman; sailor (any member of a ship's crew)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Jack"):

able-bodied seaman; able seaman (a seaman in the merchant marine; trained in special skills)

bo's'n; bo'sun; boatswain; bos'n; bosun (a petty officer on a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen)

deckhand; roustabout (a member of a ship's crew who performs manual labor)

helmsman; steerer; steersman (the person who steers a ship)

bargee; bargeman; lighterman (someone who operates a barge)

officer; ship's officer (a person authorized to serve in a position of authority on a vessel)

pilot (a person qualified to guide ships through difficult waters going into or out of a harbor)

sea lawyer (an argumentative and contentious seaman)

whaler (a seaman who works on a ship that hunts whales)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

jack; laborer; labourer; manual laborer

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

working man; working person; workingman; workman (an employee who performs manual or industrial labor)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jack"):

yardman (a laborer hired to do outdoor work (such as mowing lawns))

wrecker (someone who demolishes or dismantles buildings as a job)

woodcutter (cuts down trees and chops wood as a job)

fireman; stoker (a laborer who tends fires (as on a coal-fired train or steamship))

dock-walloper; dock worker; docker; dockhand; dockworker; loader; longshoreman; lumper; stevedore (a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port)

steeplejack (someone who builds or maintains very tall structures)

stacker (a laborer who builds up a stack or pile)

sprayer (a worker who applies spray to a surface)

section hand (a laborer assigned to a section gang)

sawyer (one who is employed to saw wood)

rail-splitter; splitter (a laborer who splits logs to build split-rail fences)

hod carrier; hodman (a laborer who carries supplies to masons or bricklayers)

porter (a person employed to carry luggage and supplies)

platelayer; tracklayer (a workman who lays and repairs railroad tracks)

mule driver; mule skinner; muleteer; skinner (a worker who drives mules)

faller; feller; logger; lumberjack; lumberman (a person who fells trees)

agricultural laborer; agricultural labourer (a person who tills the soil for a living)

bracero (a Mexican laborer who worked in the United States on farms and railroads in order to ease labor shortages during World War II)

cleaner (someone whose occupation is cleaning)

day laborer; day labourer (a laborer who works by the day; for daily wages)

digger (a laborer who digs)

dishwasher (someone who washes dishes)

drudge; galley slave; navvy; peon (a laborer who is obliged to do menial work)

gandy dancer (a laborer in a railroad maintenance gang)

gravedigger (a person who earns a living by digging graves)

hewer (a person who hews)

hand; hired hand; hired man (a hired laborer on a farm or ranch)

gipsy; gypsy; itinerant (a laborer who moves from place to place as demanded by employment)

miner; mineworker (laborer who works in a mine)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Immense East Indian fruit resembling breadfruit; it contains an edible pulp and nutritious seeds that are commonly roasted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

jack; jackfruit; jak

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

edible fruit (edible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh)

Holonyms ("jack" is a part of...):

Artocarpus heterophyllus; jackfruit; jackfruit tree (East Indian tree cultivated for its immense edible fruit and seeds)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A small ball at which players aim in lawn bowling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

ball (round object that is hit or thrown or kicked in games)

Holonyms ("jack" is a part of...):

bowls; lawn bowling (a bowling game played on a level lawn with biased wooden balls that are rolled at a jack)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An electrical device consisting of a connector socket designed for the insertion of a plug

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

electrical device (a device that produces or is powered by electricity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jack"):

phone jack; telephone jack (a jack for plugging in a telephone)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Game equipment consisting of one of several small six-pointed metal pieces that are picked up while bouncing a ball in the game of jacks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

jack; jackstones

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

game equipment (equipment or apparatus used in playing a game)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Small flag indicating a ship's nationality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

flag (emblem usually consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth of distinctive design)

Sense 9

Meaning:

One of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a young prince

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

jack; knave

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

court card; face card; picture card (one of the twelve cards in a deck bearing a picture of a face)

Sense 10

Meaning:

Tool for exerting pressure or lifting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

tool (an implement used in the practice of a vocation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jack"):

bumper jack (a jack for lifting a motor vehicle by the bumper)

jackscrew; screw jack (screw-operated jack)

Derivation:

jack (lift with a special device)

Sense 11

Meaning:

Any of several fast-swimming predacious fishes of tropical to warm temperate seas

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

carangid; carangid fish (a percoid fish of the family Carangidae)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jack"):

Caranx hippos; crevalle jack; jack crevalle; Caranx bartholomaei; yellow jack (fish of western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico)

blue runner; Caranx crysos; runner (fish of western Atlantic: Cape Cod to Brazil)

Elagatis bipinnulata; rainbow runner (streamlined cigar-shaped jack; good game fish)

leatherjack; leatherjacket (any of several New World tropical fishes having tiny embedded scales)

Alectis ciliaris; thread-fish; threadfish (fish having greatly elongated front rays on dorsal and anal fins)

amberfish; amberjack (any of several amber to coppery fork-tailed warm-water carangid fishes)

Seriola dorsalis; yellowtail (game fish of southern California and Mexico having a yellow tail fin)

banded rudderfish; rudderfish; Seriola zonata (fish having the habit of following ships; found in North American and South American coastal waters)

kingfish; Seriola grandis (large game fish of Australia and New Zealand)

Holonyms ("jack" is a member of...):

Carangidae; family Carangidae (large family of narrow-bodied marine food fishes with widely forked tails; chiefly of warm seas)

Sense 12

Meaning:

Male donkey

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

jack; jackass

Hypernyms ("jack" is a kind of...):

ass (hardy and sure-footed animal smaller and with longer ears than the horse)

• JACK (verb)

Conjugation:

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lift with a special device

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

jack; jack up

Context example:

jack up the car so you can change the tire

Hypernyms (to "jack" is one way to...):

bring up; elevate; get up; lift; raise (raise from a lower to a higher position)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

jack (tool for exerting pressure or lifting)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hunt with a jacklight

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

jack; jacklight

Hypernyms (to "jack" is one way to...):

hunt; hunt down; run; track down (pursue for food or sport (as of wild animals))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

There will only be one other, our old pal at the Korea, Jack Seward.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Yes. Mr. Jack Maldon couldn't bear the climate, my dear. Mrs. Markleham—you have not forgotten Mrs. Markleham?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Three jacks of the wine of the country, Michel—for the air bites shrewdly.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“By Gad!” he cried, “it’s Jack Harrison!”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Some day, perhaps, but not just at present, Jack.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“We're a-changing of the powder, Jack,” answers one.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The first officer, Mr. Jack Crocker, had been made a captain and was to take charge of their new ship, the Bass Rock, sailing in two days’ time from Southampton.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Jack Russell Terrier Wire is a wire-coated variety of the Jack Russell Terrier.

(Jack Russell Terrier, Wire, NCI Thesaurus)

The Jack Russell Terrier Smooth is a smooth-coated variety of the Jack Russell Terrier.

(Jack Russell Terrier, Smooth, NCI Thesaurus)